I know you listed Lua already, but it's important to stress that. Bram _did not_ want Lua as the main scripting language, and created Vim9 Script as a "better VimScript" instead. That's a stark difference in the direction for the project, and it signals to me that Vim is not meant to reintegrate with Neovim. It's no longer a question of Vim catching up with Neovim.
However, this was Bram's vision. We don't know how the new leadership will affect that.
Re:The Future of the Vim Project
by gorjusborg on Thursday August 10, 2023 @11:38AM
(#37077591)
> Vim9 Script as a "better VimScript" instead. That's a stark difference in the direction for the project
Great point. I wasn't following vim much, so didn't know the context around the language changes.
That does seem like a core philosophical difference. I'm interested to see what the future holds.
Re:The Future of the Vim Project
by ossusermivami on Friday August 11, 2023 @03:21AM
(#37086025)
it's not quite just a "better vimscript" language it's an incompatible language, if it was just improvement on top of the existing vimscript it would have been fine i think but what people are complaining about is if you are going to break compatibility why not choose an existing language like lua
Well, one of the goals of neovim was to make it easier for new people to contribute.
So, there's an obvious feature you might be overlooking: the project surviving past its creators passing.
Beyond that, async, lua, lsp and treesitter support are other things neovim brings to the table. I don't use vim much anymore, but I know that neovim incorporated them first. If vim did follow on some of those innovations, consider how long it might take for new vim maintainers to get to a point where Bram needed to be to keep up, without his guidance.
I wonder if there is a need for both vim and neovim in the future. Neovim was born out of wanting to do similar things to what the vim maintainers are considering.